Quietly
by Ookami-Papillon
Summary: After Shino is born Shibi has to make a decision. Aburame centric.


**Title:** Quietly

**Summary:** After Shino is born Shibi has to make a decision. Aburame centric.

**Notes:** I love Aburame. And so should you.

–

Shibi doesn't mourn his wife's passing.

She came to him cold, married him cold, and now she well and truly was cold. Stone cold dead. They hadn't felt much for each other; two strangers doing their duty, and that duty happened to be together. Shibi held their son, though, and decided that he would know no mother.

"Father," Muta calls, quiet and respectful in his scared little way. Shibi had also heard his cousins claiming that with a son that really was his own, the Lord Aburame would surely discard the adopted boy.

Shibi doesn't know what to say to placate the small (very small; smaller than any child he's ever seen) boy, so instead he says "Come hold your little brother," and that seems to be enough.

Muta is nervous when Shibi puts the baby in his lap, and is even more so when little Shino blinks and there is an iris and pupils and whites to the eyes under his lids.

"He hasn't got-"

"He must be five days old," Shibi tells Muta, brushing some of the boy's long hair behind his shoulder, off of Shino. Instead of telling Muta it is to ensure he is a healthy baby and will survive being a beetle's hive, he goes on with "So he will come to trust us, you see."

Muta nods, and he looks happier than he has since he was four and crying because his mother has walked out of his life (and Shibi's too).

"What's his name?" Muta whispers, since whispering in a baby's presence seems appropriate.

Shibi murmurs back; "Shino."

"Oh," Muta says agreeably, and his voice is so warm and delighted that Shibi imagines it killing him one day. "Hello Shino! I'm your big brother! My name's Muta, okay? I'm going to look after you very well, you'll see! I'll walk you to and from the academy when you're big enough, and I'll help you tie your shoes and read you stories!" Muta goes on and on like that, excitedly telling Shino all the things they'll do together and all the fun they'll have as shinobi, that soon enough Shibi can't bare it and leaves with some muttered excuse.

The Aburame are a rational clan. They value intellect and the mind more highly that most anything. Intelligence. A level head. That is what the Aburame embody.

So when every rational part of Shibi is telling him he should give them both up, he listens. He knows that it's true he won't have much time for them. He knows that they will be well-loved and cared for by many of his capable, trustworthy siblings. He knows that he could still be close to them. He knows that he could still be called father.

_'At least the babe,'_ He thinks, _'At least give him a better chance at a family.'_

Of course, there are still other parts to an Aburame. Matters of theism. Politics. Emotions. Those are weighed and considered carefully too, because they can be just as rational… at the appropriate times.

_'They are my children,'_ He thinks again, fiercely, _'They're _mine._ I love them. I'm their father. They're mine.'_

What did this matter fall under? It was his children, but they were the future of his clan. It was a matter of the heart, but it had to be monitored by the mind. This weighed on not only those two brothers, but with other brothers, other sisters that they would meet and love and call family. This involved the sisters that would tease them into smiling. This involved the brothers that would train them into fighters. This involved the uncles that would pat their heads and the aunts that would hug them. This involved their family, and maybe that was more important than this smaller, broken one.

"Father!" Muta sounds so panicked that there are a cloud of kikaichū there before Muta can also yell; "He's laughing! Father I don't know what to do, please!"

The beetles burrow under his skin, rub against muscle tissue and buzz, lay their eggs in his guts and Shibi chuckles as he takes his small Shino from his Muta.

"Did he frighten you? By _laughing?_"

Muta doesn't look amused at all. "Is he broken? I don't want him to be broken…"

Shibi chuckles again at how sad he sounds. "He's not broken. He's a baby."

"Oh," Muta realises, and he giggles too, the sound turning shrill and loud when Shino gurgles.

"Sir?" There are young men at his back, huddling outside with their sisters as they whisper and hiss back to their fellows that nothing has happened and they cannot see the baby.

"Muta?" Shibi asks his son in turn.

Muta takes his cue wonderfully, and Shibi has never been so sure of something in all his life. These are his sons. They always will be. This time, he will be selfish. This time, he will have what is his.

"His name is Shino, and he is very small and warm. He laughed just now! So did I," He adds shyly. One of Muta's older cousins starts crying and more begin teasing her. "He's my little brother."

Shibi stands with Shino in his arms and turns to the young Aburame children at the door that he is sure he will see grow and die and prosper.

"Oh, that's… that's very, good, uhh, that's good and-" The young man fumbles at what to say now, and the others laugh at him but since they can do no better they do nothing.

"Might we hold him? See him? Oh please!" Except one, an eager one who has forgotten (o refuses) to do his collar up and so his visible excitement makes the gaggle laugh louder.

Shibi nods and the eager man is taken over by the crying woman and Shino is swept away from him in an eager torrent of loving family who coo to him and take his older brother up also. Both boys are adored and doted upon and coddled so unbecomingly that when one of Shibi's fellows comes to tell them off he's almost too amused to tell him that his son has been born.

There is understanding then, understanding that Shibi is confident he'll receive when he informs them all he will be raising both his sons. One of the boys is crying now, and is so distracted he doesn't notice it's Shibi patting his back.

The Aburame are rational. The Aburame are emotional. The Aburame will understand his father's need for his children.


End file.
